1. Field of the Invention
The preset invention relates to a map display apparatus and map display method, and is preferably applied to a vehicle navigation apparatus, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In late years, map provision sites have been published on the Internet. Users visually check map images, which are displayed by browsers based on map data downloaded from map servers of the map provision sites.
With this kind of map images downloaded through the map provision sites, arrow icons are provided around them. When a user clicks the arrow icon, the browser downloads from the map server a map data showing an area adjacent to the currently displayed area of map. And then the browser displays the area based on the downloaded map data.
In this case, when a user wants to visually check the vicinity of the currently displayed map image, he/she has to click the arrow icon and scroll the displayed map image. For example, when a user is trying to find out a building on maps, he/she generally does not know exactly where it is while he/she can guess. In this case, the user estimates the location of the building, and downloads a map data including the estimated location by using the browser. The user then scrolls the map image displayed on a display section a couple of times to find out the building.
By the way, a map information display device is provided capable of displaying a map image with a plurality of images showing its vicinity map. The images showing the vicinity map are displayed on the right area of the map image in thumbnail format. That allows users to visually check the vicinity (see, for example Japanese Patent Publication No. 11-120335).